virginia santilli portfolio
Contents
four words (a foreword)
experience
(ĭk-spîr’ē-əns), n. In 1979 Giorgio Agamben states that, in contemporary everyday life, experience is no longer accessible to people. Acknowledging how the perception of the space has mutated during the XX Century, I reckon that the matter of attention and experience has to be faced by archiIV. Systems tects today in the study and the production of space. Despite what universities teach us, architecture is not only a projection, where repre53. The astonishment of sentation escapes the experience on the ground. Architecture implies the threshold action in constructing the built environment. It implies responsibility. To me the capability of being other as architect is what allows to create 61. Specificity and spaces of experience.
narration
Autonomy
Brunico (nă-rā’səhn), n. The capability to narrate is the ability to exchange experience, and the current crisis of experience causes and involves a Odense crisis of narrating. The necessity and the rapidity to give a quick spatial answer that focuses on the aesthetic paradigm rather that the analysis of the territory is to me one of the main issues today in architecture. This V. and Essays problem comes along with the impossibility of architects urbanists to imagine and narrate future scenarios in projects. In a world that Of architecture and changes with extreme rapidity, I believe that the aim of70. the architectural project is to shape the transformation of how the city and the ter experience. ritory will be experienced, thus the imaginative power of the architect Perceiving architecture becomes crucial.
interdisciplinarity
(ĭn’tər-dĭs’ə-plə-nĕr’ĭ-tē), n.
in our contemporary society 74. Manifesto
The capability to develop a project that answers the needs of the ter For a cross-disciplinary, ritory and the society requires the ability to understand reality and open and collective study to envision future scenarios. While reading the context, the architect the physical of the territory has to keep in mind a set of meta-layers that stand over space that can only be understood with an open eye towards other disciplines, as sociology, economics and urban planning, but also as literature and arts. I see the role of the architect as an intellectual, able to link different disciplines and to bridge different scales of the project, to understand the context as a whole, and to give a conscious answer to it.
res publica
(rēz pŭb’lĭ-kə), n. I see architecture as a discipline of critical observation of reality. The importance of space in the construction of social relations and in influencing power dynamics, as history has shown, makes architecture a political and social tool that has to depart from a resolute understanding of the world. Architecture requires a definite position and strong awareness of the role and the tools of the architect, to denounce, to intervene and to shape future realities. In a time where the private constantly has a public resonance, Arendt and Habermas’ public sphere has to be addressed the most. Architecture is always a public matter, a res publica, where each project has a social collective resonance in the public interior.
These four words -my interpretation of them- are a lens to see architecture and the world today and are constantly reflected into my work. Sending a print, hand-binded portfolio is a choice to convey the care I put in the work I do and the necessary materiality and tangibility of what design means to me. Each project is introduced by a reference: a lens through which I conceived the design. It expresses my vision of architecture as a reading of places and social practices, interpreted by the singularity of the individual.
Contents
Four words
IV. Systems
About
53.
I. Manifesto 5. The Suburban Commons 17. Narratives
II. Objects 23.
Theatres of war
29.
The Metamorphosis
III. Places 41. Seoul. Imminent Commons 47. Marghera. An industrial tale
The astonishment of the threshold
61. Specificity and Autonomy Brunico Odense
V. Essays 70. Of architecture and experience. Perceiving architecture in our contemporary society 74. Manifesto For a cross-disciplinary, open and collective study of the territory
(just a portrait)
BY THE DRIZZLING SEA
BY THE DRIZZLING SEA
Virginia Santilli
At the end of this sentence, rain will begin
Virginia Santilli was born in Rome in 1993 amidst the smell of freshly baked bread of the forno downstairs. Graduated in classical studies, she moved to Venice to study architecture and to dedicate herself to solitary night walks face to face with Beauty. Perceiving considerable gaps concerning the architectural practice in university studies, she took a year off to work at Barozzi/Veiga, Barcelona, and then she graduated at IUAV cum laude. In 2016 she started her Master studies at TU Delft, intrigued by the fervent debate on contemporary architecture and on the role of the architect today. In 2018, she graduated cum laude with a thesis concerning the role of suburban shopping centres, through a cross-disciplinary, open and collective study of the territory. Virginia currently lives in the Netherlands where she works and reads books.
virginiasantilli5@gmail.com +39 339 4695 309 / +31 621 666 192 www.virginiasantilli.eu
(curriculum vitæ) Studies 2016 – 2018 2012 – 2015 2018 2017 2015 2007 – 2012
MSc in Architecture at TU Delft University, cum laude BArch (Architecture) at IUAV University of Venice, cum laude Workshop with Studio Ossidiana on concrete and terrazzo technique at Tomaello, Rotterdam Workshop with Aristide Antonas at Porto Academy 2017 Workshop with Anne Lacaton at TU Delft Masterclass with Rem Koolhaas at Kunsthal, Rotterdam Workshop with Eva Franch i Gilabert, WaVe 2015 Advanced course of photographic technique at Spiazzi, Venice High school degree at Liceo Classico Virgilio, Rome
Working experience 2017 Europan 14 winner First prize for Neu Ulm (DE) on the theme productive cities 2015 - 2016 Architect, Barozzi/Veiga | Barcelona Competitions, ongoing projects, construction drawings 2015 Intern, Barozzi/Veiga | Barcelona 2015 Teaching assistant, Renato Rizzi | IUAV Academic year 2014-2015, workshop Lo Stupore della Soglia with philosopher Andrea Tagliapietra 2012 - 2018 Private lessons of Latin and Ancient Greek literature and translation
Writings 2018 2017
Manifesto for a cross-disciplinary study of the territory The suburban commons (Master thesis) Of architecture and experience. Perceiving architecture in our contemporary society. A dialogue on sustainability. Urgency and demagogy.
Lectures and exhibitions 2018 2017 2015
Lecture The suburban commons, Palazzo Mora, Biennale di Architettura di Venezia Exhibition Europan 14 winners, DAZ Berlin Contributor, Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism Contributor, Mantova Architettura 2015
Skills Rigorous and passionate, detail-oriented and well organized. Able to work and think independently, but at the same time seeking creative interpersonal thinking. Pursuer of knowledge and experience. Careful observer of spaces, people and social practices. Languages Italian | native English | proficiency Spanish | proficiency French | basic understanding Latin and Ancient Greek | translation Other Model making | Gypsum, concrete, wood, cardboad, metal, paper, resins, foam Digital and analog photography Fine writing skills | Italian, English
Computer skills OS |
Windows, Mac OS
Office |
Word, Excel, Power Point
2D / 3D |
AutoCAD, Rhinoceros, Archicad, Grasshopper, 3ds Max, Revit
Rendering |
V-ray, Maxwell
Image / layout | Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign Lightroom Video editing | Premiere, Final Cut Pro
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Rajasthani pilgrims reach the first desert dune on the way to Jaisalmer, September 2018 1
Lo duca e io per quel cammino ascoso intrammo a ritornar nel chiaro mondo; e sanza cura aver d’alcun riposo, salimmo sù, el primo e io secondo, tanto ch’i’ vidi de le cose belle che porta ’l ciel, per un pertugio tondo. E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.
The Guide and I into that hidden road Now entered, to return to the bright world; And without care of having any rest We mounted up, he first and I the second, Till I beheld through a round aperture Some of those beauteous things which Heaven doth bear; Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.
Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, Inferno, XXXIV, 133-139
I. Manifesto
Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities There is nothing economically or socially inevitable about either the decay of old cities or the fresh-minted decadence of the new unurban urbanization. On the contrary, no other aspect of our economy and society has been more purposefully manipulated for a full quarter of a century to achieve precisely what we are getting. Extraordinary governmental financial incentives have been required to achieve this degree of monotony, sterility and vulgarity. Decades of preaching, writing and exhorting by experts have gone into convincing us and our legislators that mush like this must be good for us, as long as it comes bedded with grass. Automobiles are often conveniently tagged as the villains responsible for the ills of cities and the disappointments and futilities of city planning. But the destructive effects of automobiles are much less a cause than a symptom of our incompetence at city building. Of course planners, including the highwaymen with fabulous sums of money and enormous powers at their disposal, are at a loss to make automobiles and cities compatible with one another. They do not know what to do with automobiles in cities because they do not know how to plan for workable and vital cities anyhow—with or without automobiles. The simple needs of automobiles are more easily understood and satisfied than the complex needs of cities, and a growing number of planners and designers have come to believe that if they can only solve the problems of traffic, they will thereby have solved the major problem of cities. Cities have much more intricate economic and social concerns than automobile traffic. How can you know what to try with traffic until you know how1 the city itself works, and what else it needs to do with its streets? You can’t.
I. Manifesto
future the role of the mall for these territories. The project intervenes on the mall: breaking the monofunctionality of commercial space, by reusing vacant spaces such as storages and injecting new functions; allowing the flexibility of space, by designing a system of moving walls that enhances different spatial configurations; injecting local activities, following the model of Jane Jacobs’ import replacing theory, to heal the rupture between local production and consumption and to economically root the shopping centre in the territory it is in.
The suburban commons
In Western European suburban areas, shopping centres are the main attractor, both socially and commercially. Overcoming the scale of small town centres and providing a common regional place, these world interiors of capital are building a new territorial identity. Nevertheless, today online shopping is denaturating shopping centres, turning them into entertaining centres. The project deals with very different scales to envision a future scenario for the Western European dispersed city and to frame to
The suburban commons proposes a mediation between the public, the private and the collective to imagine a new regional centre that breaks the sole commercial function and provides a place to gather, a space of appearance, linked to its territory. It imagines a sustainable, convivial scenario that rethinks the shopping centre and prepares the territory for a possible post-mall phase.
The project has been carried out at TU Delft in the academic year 2017-2018 as part of the individual graduation project. 8
The suburban commons
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9 Suburban fabric: centuriation, agricultural fields and the scale of the shopping centre on the area. 10 Axonometry of one of the urban case studies: abandoned industrial buildings (IUAV, 2015 with Battista, Davino, Masiero, Pizzini). 11 Axonometric exploded showing the current
state, the demolished buildigngs and the new additions (IUAV, 2015 with Battista, Davino, Masiero, Pizzini). 12 Analysis of Camposampierese connecting streets (IUAV, 2015 with Battista). 12-13 Project section 1:50: the piazza and the courtyard / inserting multifunctionality in the
mall. 13 Plan showing the three voids created, the definition of the piazza and the flexible shopping centre space. 14 View of the garden from the library. 15 View of the garden and the corner in between the wall and the building. 16 Axonometry showing 18
the new spaces and the relationship between outside and inside in the project. 17 Detail of the roof and the moving wall (additions in red) 18 New uncovered space where columns remain to allows possible future uses.
Yona Friedman Utopies rĂŠalisables
I. Manifesto
between present and future, but it leaves rooms to the uncertainty of reality and freedom of users. The narration as a tool to design and to envision future scenarios is connected with the need for the architect to observe and be on the field. The idea of the architectural project as a collective project does not only apply to the observation phase of the design, but also to while envisioning future scenarios and formulating the project itself. This takes place when the architect does not dictate how to live and how to act to the future users of the project but leaves room for the unpredictability of the appropriation. Nevertheless, it is important to underline that the act of leaving space for appropriation does not mean giving away a part of your responsibility as an architect, but accepting the contingency of real world. Microstories always carry an element of exemplification of the uncertain that remains flexible, differently from a masterplan.
Narratives
Microstories are a tool that has been developed in connection with the Master thesis project The Suburban Commons in order to envision future scenarios for the Western European dispersed city. Envisioning the project through microstories forces the architect to reach a great level of detail to reflect on everyday elements of the future way of living without the necessity of forcing the strictness of planning. It allows to understand which are the critical points and the improvement to be made that will influence the transition
The following research has been conceived in a fragmented way on my notebooks during the years and has been established conclusively during the Master thesis at TU Delft. 20
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I. Manifesto
On the role | Architecture as a collective act
and the interviews have been a tool for this. For my project, the main goal has been imaging the best possible scenario of cooperation and mediation between these different actors and to study to which extent could architecture influence the balance of these relationships and solidify them into space.
I see every architectural project as a collective act. From the observation of the territory to the design, the architect works connecting multiple disciplines, multiple scales and multiple actors. The role of the architect in this collaborative process is to gather the different positions and to mediate between actors, to ultimately understand the power of space in social relations. In this process, the intellectual role of the architect is necessary to link cross-disciplinary knowledge and the ability to work on different scales. In this project the attention to the different actors that play a role in the territory is crucial. The private, on one side, is funding, managing and benefitting from the creation of large shopping centres on the territory. The public, on the other side, that is instituting a common territorial identity, politically and economically, through the Federation of Municipalities of Camposampierese, and that is fighting the private investors of shopping malls to safeguard small business. Furthermore, the collective – the inhabitants of the dispersed city – and the importance of the customs and practices of the society in relation to space. The observation of the actors is never self-referential, but in a constant exchange with the world: the in situ experience of the field trip
On the process and position | Contextuality, flexibility and cross-disciplinarity In space: from the research to the design, I tried to keep a constant focus on the need for contextuality. The idea of context has many different facets, I don’t only refer to the physical context, but also to the socio-economic context, the political context, the historical context… One of the key points of the design phase of the project concerning contextuality has been the necessity of intervening on two existing buildings. The current economic condition of the Western European suburban areas demands strategic interventions that can make improvements in short time and with moderate economic resources. Especially in the Italian case where for decades concrete has been poured without regulations compromising the beauty of the landscape, I think it is important to trigger a requalification starting from what is already there, at
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Narratives hand to be reused.
reflected also on the design applied to different scales. I tried to be extremely flexible in moving – and jumping – from a scale to another and I can state that the architectonical project was actually generated from the convergence of the territorial project (mobility, circularity and the future view for the dispersed city) and the detail scale. For example, once I defined the role of the shopping mall from a territorial view, I had few key-concepts (flexibility in space and time, multifunctionality, sustainability) that brought me directly to the definition of a set of key-details (moving walls, openable roof, permeable façade) to finally define the project on the middle ground of the architectural scale. I realized retrospectively that the definition of this approach had a very clear root: during the field trip, I visited for the first time Carlo Scarpa’s Tomba Brion and it was probably the strongest impact a building had on my way to conceive architecture. I was astonished by how every detail has such an incredible power on its own and at the same time all these elements are coming together so harmoniously in the building as a whole. I always worked conceiving the building as one unit where all the elements were coherent with the unit, but I see now how space can be much more interesting when the design starts from the identity of the element to come together into one.
In time: since the beginning of the project, I always tried to keep my observation broad to define the extent of the phenomenon. On each phase of the project I referred to case-studies to always double check if what I was working on was an exception or a common situation. From this came the choice of working on two different buildings. My project is meant to be a model for future interventions, therefore intervening on two cases makes sure that I am not talking about one specific exception, but gives guidelines on how to reuse currently unused spaces of shopping malls, to make space flexible and to root it into the territory it is in. Moreover, the two cases I am working on are in two different stages of the evolution of the shopping mall: one is the territorial centre, the other one is decadent and partly vacant. The one project keeps the commercial function, the other one tackled a change of use; the one project is a metaphor of the villa urbana, the other one of the villa rustica. In scale: I have been very attentive on the process of the project besides the final result. One of the key points of the process was the cross-disciplinary knowledge as background for the architectural project. This cross-disciplinary, broad view of the architect has been
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I. Manifesto
21 Five strips of microstories for Camposampierese: future commercial activities, future industrial production, location independent work, education and agricultural
production. 22-23 Extract from the position paper of Master Thesis in TU Delft. 22-23 Microstory on future commercial activities: a foothold in
the mall / new housing in the small town centres / location independent work and storage in the countriside houses / bringing the products to the foothold. 24
24 Construction detail of the piazza pavement and the market stalls, illustrated.
Gerhard Richter, Bahndamm, 1986
II. Objects
II. Objects
focuses on building a museum of World War near the military memorial Asiago. The WWI Museum is placed in the gap between these two poles, as the filter, with the aim of mending two separate spaces, but with the same story; it resumes vertically, the contrast between the space of the living people and the space of the dead people, as in the city of Calvino, come to bind to such an extent as to be indistinct. The same tension can be found in the livability of the two museum spaces: the underground one is the main due to functions and organization of the material. However its legitimacy derives from the relationship with the external space in continuous flux. The permanent exhibition gives the visitors three different lenses to interpreted the Great War: the one of the soldier, the civilian and finally the institution. The same process is proposed in the outside path there where the museum experience reaches its peak where it can experiences the context.
Theatres of war
The project was inspired by the gesture that Richter makes in his Atlas: he photographs the tracks on which the wagons of the deportees used to pass, through a distancing himself from the central point of view, admitting the impossibility of an identification with those who have actually experienced that tragedy, the trenches of exhausting tench-warfare are not simply unhearted, but are evoked through the no man’s land, what there is in between: not a line, but a band where everything merges, mixes. This art installation is flanked by designing an information point, an exhibition space, a bivouac and ten guest quarters, to allow site visits. The second part of the project
The project has been developed at IUAV, on the third year of Bachelor, with professor Alberto Ferlenga. Group work with Andrea Pizzini and Chiara Davino. 26
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27 Plan, elevation and section of the in situ exhibition space of the First World War on Mount Zebio. 28 Planimetry of the
Asiago museum of the First World War and its relation with the military memorial and the city. 28-29 Section of the project and its relation
to the military memorial and the Dolomites. 29 Plans and section of the project. 30 Image of the in situ intervention to show 30
the changing no man’s land in between the two defence lines on Mount Zebio.
I will devote my first lecture to the opposition between lightness and weight, and will uphold the values of lightness. This does not mean that I consider the virtues of weight any less compelling, but simply that I have more to say about lightness. Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millennium, 1985
Gordon Matta Clark, Conical Intersect II 1
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The action overcame the will as soon as the individual vanished into the crowd.
The metamorphosis
The wall is a political tool today. The fear of the different makes us forget what being human is and the symbolic meaning of the border is stronger than ever. As in Kafka’s metamorphosis, the city wakes up with a different identity. A foreigner body took the place of the old one, the known one. In this project, the small industrial city of Ijmuiden, north of Amsterdam, personifies Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis.
When it is clear that the war didn’t have to exist, slowly the city reconnect within itself, new splits appears and the wall starts to be lived as a common. The large highways that use to divide the city from the sea are now interrupted and citizens find back a connection with the forgotten water. A new element ease this rediscovered connection
The city is witnessing an apotheosis of closure and racism. Messages of hate are hung by the bridges and the modernist structure of the city feeds barriers and segregation between the different enclosures of the forma urbis.
A series of maps describe the narration, using different drawing techniques to draw the different housing types of the city. This is the story of how the community overtakes the symbolic wall and the urban form starts looking at the public space again.
A wall is built. The city is fractured.
The project has been carried out at TU Delft, during the first year of Master, with visiting professors Marius Grootveld and Lilith Ronner van Hooijdonk. 32
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33 Image of the intervention: cutting the exhisting buildings to create a new connenction between the city and the sea.
34-35 Drawing of Ijmuiden and the life after the construction of the wall. The city reacts and creates new north-south connections
towards the sea. 36 Elevation of the floating pavilion. 36-37 Building phases of the floating pavilion. 37 Section of the floating 38
pavilion. 38 Image of the reappropriation of the city after the wall is built and the new connection to the sea.
III. Places
Hannah Arendt The Human Condition The space of appearance comes into being wherever men are together in the manner of speech and action, and therefore predates and precedes all formal constitution of the public realm and the various forms of government, that is, the various forms in which the public realm can be organized. Its peculiarity is that, unlike the spaces which are the work of our hands, it does not survive the actuality of the movement which brought it into being, but disappears not only with the dispersal of men-as in the case of great catastrophes when the body politic of a people is destroyedbut with the disappearance or arrest of the activities themselves . Wherever people gather together, it is potentially there, but only potentially, not necessarily and not forever. That civilizations can rise and fall, that mighty empires and great cultures can decline and pass away without external catastrophesand more often than not such external “causes” are preceded by a less visible internal decay that invites disaster-is due to this peculiarity of the public realm, which, because it ultimately resides on action and speech, never altogether loses its potential character. What first undermines and then kills political communities is loss of power and final impotence; and power cannot be stored up and kept in reserve for emergencies, like the instruments of violence, but exists only in its actualization. [...] Power is what keeps the public realm, the potential space of appearance between acting and speaking men, in existence. The word itself, its Greek equivalent dynamis, like the Latin potentia with its various modern dervatives or the German Macht (which derives from mogen and moglich, not from machen) , indicates its “potential” character. Power is always, as we would say, a power potential and not an unchangeable, measurable, and reliable entity like force or strength. While strength is the natural quality of an individual seen in isolation, power springs up between men when they act together and vanishes the moment they disperse.
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III. Places
together in a project spontaneously through the traditional typology of the Korean fresh food market where the shops are linked to the dwelling of the retailers. The need to bring back a fresh food market into the city center finds a link to the emergency of homeless around the station and enhance a mechanism for social rehabilitation.
Seoul Imminent commons
The project proposes a new market that looks back to the identity of Korean traditional architectural typologies. The new space brings back to the city center the typical fresh food market and proposes an answer to the homeless problem, reintegrating them into society. The project sprouts from the spatial analysis of the Seoul Station area and the necessity of embedding the 7017 to the existing urban fabric to actually enhance a new public space. Deepening the research on a social, economic and cultural layer many other problematics arose. Nevertheless, the main one came
The project aims to create an enclosed public space as a relief valve for 7017. The project aims to bring the daily activity of a fresh food market again to the city center (dealing with transportation). The project aims to engage a fertile and lively connection with the urban context. The project aims to safeguard local manufacture and to provide a space for working and trading. The project tries to tackle the homeless problem during night hours.
The project has been developed during the first year of Master at TU Delft and has been exhibited at Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017, Imminent Commons, curated by Hyungmin Pai and Alejandro Zaera-Polo 40
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41 Spatial analysis of Seoul city centre and the definition of political space. 42 Image of the project, the definite, monumental side towards the rail-
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the connection to the Seoul Station pedestrial highway. 43 Axonometric exploded of the project: the connection to the pedestrial highway, the courtyard, 44
the public baths, the market and the offices. 44 Image of the courtyard at night
Gerhard Richter, Atlas, Tafel 68
III. Places
Marghera. An industrial tale
ing buildings. As a working group we considered an architectural artifact for offices and residences, but always on the basis of a project for the public municipality. The collection of autonomous but specific architectures for the place that will derive from it, will unveil a new possible industrial tale: an unexpected urban scenario on the edge of the Northern Industrial Canal.
Rethinking the urban condition. Reflecting on how to shape a fragment of the city in an industrial context: which architectures and urban spaces are necessary for the existing industrial fabric to reach the density, complexity and intensity of an urban space. The intent was to unveil a new possible contemporary citĂŠ industrielle, made of spaces of relationship, of functional mixitĂŠ, of transformations of the existing and of new artifacts. We have worked in a stratified context in a conscious but free way; modifying, expanding, adding, densifying or replicating the exist-
Premises: 1 An act is a program 2 A place is its space 3 Reality can’t be ignored 4 A microcosmos is necessarily private 5 Existence means connection Observations: 1 Porto Marghera is planned to be industrial 2 Porto Marghera is a pure process 3 Porto Marghera is human 4 Porto Marghera is a divisional device 5 Porto Marghera bans any communication
The project has been developed at IUAV during the first year of Bachelor for the workshop of Fabrizio Barozzi. Group work with C. Dubini, G. Elasti and G. Bortoluzzi. 46
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III. Places
47 Planimetry of the area of the project in Marghera and final model.
48-49 Image of the existing state of Marghera industrial area and the
intervention. 50 Axonometry of one of the interventions 50
50 Plans and section of one of the interventions.
IV. Systems
Derek Walcott Map of the New World At the end of this sentence, rain will begin. At the rain’s edge, a sail. Slowly the sail will lose sight of islands; into a mist will go the belief in harbours of an entire race. The ten-years war is finished. Helen’s hair, a grey cloud. Troy, a white ashpit by the drizzling sea. The drizzle tighten like the strings of a harp. A man with clouded eyes picks up the rain and plucks the first line of the Odyssey.
IV. Systems
project includes: the transfer of all road transport to Tronchetto; the construction of a quarry square, an open-air theater, with proscenium oriented towards the bend of the Grand Canal; the transformation of the large public garage in the library, organized according to the Warburgh model: I floor - Orientierung II floor - Wort III floor - Bild IV floor - Dromenon
The astonishment of the threshold
Redesigning Piazzale Roma. The two main themes, Venice and the western gate, will have as their common denominator a third theme: experience, in a contemporary world in which we are bombed with sensations, information, possibilities, freedom, where, however, an incredible network of connections is reduced to a point of zero space and time. The project aims at converting a chaotic edge, from a threshold as limitation to a threshold as an orientation, through a device: Piazza San Marco, the eastern gate that allows us to scrutinize the broader horizon of Western knowledge. In short, the symbolic and functional structure of the iconological program of the
The extension of the Tronchetto area in analogy with the shapes of the port; will host three underground levels for car parks with a hanging arbor roof park. A contribution of the design themes at the beginning of each week was centered on a musical work by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. The workshop has been carried out with the theoretical support of Andrea Tagliapietra, who organized a series of four lectures concerning the middle ground of architecture and philosophy through the theme of experience.
The following work is the output of the workshop by Renato Rizzi at IUAV in July 2015, which I took part of and I coordinated as teaching assistant. 52
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John Hejduk Venice 1953
IV. Systems
Long wait from blackness to the blue anticipation of dawn morning breeze through dark windows chalk white waters frozen moss voices bird and man.
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53 Model of Venice made by the students during the workshop Lo Stupore della Soglia. Each module is A3 size. 54-55 Model of the
56-58 Model of Venice made by students, highlighting few buildings and the project for the new gardens in Tronchetto.
genesis of the Venetian laguna made before the workshop Lo Stupore della Soglia with Francesca Angelillo and Niccolò Fogolari. 58
58 Elevation model of Santa Maria dei Miracoli, case study for the workshop Lo Stupore della Soglia.
Giorgio Vasari, Uffizi, XVI Century
IV. Systems
most precious lesson I have learned in one year at Barozzi/Veiga. The attention to the specificity of the place, which opposes the generic to rediscover the diversity and singularity of things, and at the same time preserving an autonomy of form and an aesthetic coherence.
Specificity and autonomy
In the following pages, there is the executive project for a music school in Brunico (Italy), in which we tried to solve at best the way in which the light could filter through a false ceiling in lamellas that is flanked by a glass cover. The second project is a competition for H.C. Andersen museum in Denmark. A succession of exercises, tests and hypotheses that followed the same conceptual track. To heal an urban wound through the creation of a garden.
This section is introduced by Giorgio Vasari’s project for Uffizi in Florence. During my time working in Barozzi/Veiga, one lesson has been fundamental for me and it is perfectly symbolized by Vasari’s gesture in the Uffizi. In the XVI Century, Vasari is asked to build the most important museum and archive of the city. What he does is to step back from the building to look at the urban form and decides to give up on almost one third of the built surface to create a long urban void for the city. This interconnection between the building and the city and at the same time the responsibility to act honestly towards the city and its space is the
The common feature of all these projects and that fascinated me extremely was the attempt to always create an open, public and accessible urban space, which always becomes the core of the project.
60
Specificity and Autonomy
61
IV. Systems
62
63
61 Project introduction: Brunico Music School, plan, section and image. 62 Render made to test the roof detail, with a special focus on the daylight. 63 Trials of different position of roof elements and different sections of the profiles. 64 Hans Christian Handersen Museum, Odense. Analysis of the exhisting context and buildings and project section in the context.
IV. Systems
64
V. Essays
V. Essays
Of architecture and experience. Perceiving architecture in our contemporary society
Over the whole Twentieth century, philosophical theories have dealt with the impossibility for the contemporary society to make authentic experience. Overwhelmed by an excessive amount of stimuli and data, metropolitan individuals become indifferent to the outer world. Amplified by this phenomenon but also by its very nature, architecture is perceived by non-architects in a state of distraction, as the soundtrack in the background of a movie. It seems that until now the only answer architecture gave to this statement was a desperate and uncoordinated request of attention resulted in the iconic and autonomous buildings identically erected from London to Beijing over the last thirty years. Perhaps it is time to reflect on how space affects its users and to find the link between the existing architectural “syntax” and its “semantics”, in order to better understand the meaning and the effect of architectural gestures. This essay aims to bring together these attempts to create a coherent theory on how architectural design influence people’s experience of space. 66
Black and white blindness
Black and white blindness is the first chapter of the essay and presents the dichotomy between Benjamin and Agamben’s theories on experience through the metaphores of José Saramago.
One ordinary Saturday of an early spring of my adolescence, my father forgot everything. We were in the living room of our house in Rome. I was studying on the table, while my father was reading on the sofa. A pleasant breeze coming from the window was delicately flipping the pages of the stacks of books and newspaper scattered around the room. How did I get here? – my father suddenly asked He wasn’t agitated and he was perfectly recognizing me, but he didn’t remember how he arrived at the sofa, he didn’t remember all the articles he read, he couldn’t even remember what we did that morning nor what day it was. Everything from the previous few days was completely erased. In an extreme state of worry, he was brought to the hospital, where he underwent every kind of neurological analysis. Nothing was out of place. Doctors kept him in the hospital several days to investigate his malaise, but as they couldn’t find anything to explain it, they just dismissed him without an answer. A few years later a neurologist named it TGA, transient global amnesia. It came out which is a rare syndrome that has been well-described for the last 40 years. It is a sudden and temporary loss of memory where your recall of recent events simply vanishes. The neurologist explained it as the necessity of the overloaded brain to create space for new data. The psychical condition of the metropolitan modern man was first described in a visionary series of lectures by Georg Simmel named “The Metropolis” that took place in 1903 alongside the Dresden Cities exhibition. The author studies the effects that life in the metropolis has on the psyche of the individual at the dawn of the XX Century. He identifies an “intensification of nervous stimulation which results from the swift and uninterrupted change of outer and inner stimuli”. 1 These stimuli are impressions that differ only slightly from one another and that exact from a human as a “discriminating creature” a different amount of consciousness.2 To protect subjective life against the overwhelming power of the external environment, metropolitan man heightens his awareness of outer phenomena and his intellectuality. He reacts with his head instead of his heart. 3 The intellectually sophisticated man assumes a matter-of-fact attitude to deal with the money economy, which dominates the metropolis, and becomes indifferent to all genuine individuality. A calculative exactness takes over human’s mentality. Simmel glimpses the danger of the Twentieth Century metropolitan life already in 1903 and introduces a theme that we still need to come to terms with. What he defines as the outcome of the totality of these phenomena is what he names a blasé attitude that can also be called a constant state of indifference and distraction to the outer world. A life in boundless pursuit of pleasure makes one blasé because it agitates the nerves to their strongest reactivity for such a long time that they finally cease to react at all. […] The essence of the blasé attitude consists in the blunting of discrimination. This 67
Georg Simmel, The metropolis and mental life, in Classic essays 1 Georg Simmel, The metropolis on the culture of the cities, and mental life, inThe Classic essays 1 Georg edited Simmel, by Richardmetropolis Sennett, on the culture the essays cities, and mental life, inof Classic 1
Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall
edited by Richard Sennett, on inc., the 1969,culture p. 48. of the cities,
Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall edited by Richard Sennett, inc., 1969, p. 48. Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall inc., 1969, p. 48. 2 Giorgio Agamben, Infancy
and history. On the destruction 2 Giorgio Agamben, Infancy of experience, Verso and history. On the destruction 2 Giorgio Agamben, Infancy publications, London, 2006 of experience , Verso and history. On the destruction publications, London, 2006 of experience, Verso publications, London, 2006 3 Giorgio Agamben, Ibid. 3
Giorgio Agamben, Ibid.
3
Giorgio Agamben, Ibid. Georg Simmel, op. cit., p. 51-52.
4 4
Georg Simmel, op. cit., p. 51-52.
Georg Simmel, op. cit., p. 51-52. Benjamin has been particularly influenced by Neo5 Benjamin has been Kantianism at University in the particularly influenced by Neo5 Benjamin has been second decade of XX Century, Kantianism at University in the particularly attending theinfluenced lectures ofby Neosecond decade of XX Century, Kantianism atasUniversity philosophers Hermannin the attending the lectures of second which decadeisofthe XXauthor Century, Cohen of philosophers as Hermann attending the lectures of Kant's Theorie der Erfahrung Cohen which is the author of [philosophers Kant's TheoryasofHermann Experience] Kant's Theorie der Erfahrung Cohen which is the author of (1885). [Kant's Theory of Experience] Kant's Theorie der Erfahrung (1885). [Kant's Theory of Experience] (1885). 4 5
edited by Richard Sennett, Georg Simmel, The metropolis Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall and mental life, in Classic essays inc., 1969, p. 48. 1 Georg on the Simmel, culture of Ibid. the cities, 3 The metropolis Giorgio Agamben, edited by life Richard Sennett, and mental , in Classic essays Englewood Cliffs,ofPrentice-Hall on the culture the cities, inc., 1969, p. 48. edited by Richard Sennett, 2 Giorgio Agamben, Infancy 4 Englewood Cliffs,op.Prentice-Hall Georg Simmel, cit., p. 51-52. and history. On the destruction 1 Georg Simmel, inc., 1969, p. 48. The metropolis ofGeorg experience , Verso 1 and mental life , in Classic essays Simmel, The metropolis publications, London, 2006 2 on the culture the cities, and mental life , inof Classic essays Giorgio Agamben, Infancy edited by Richard on the culture ofdestruction theSennett, cities, and history. On the 5 Benjamin has been Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall 2 edited by Richard Sennett, of experience , Verso Giorgio Agamben, Infancy particularly influenced by Neoinc., 1969, p. Cliffs, 48. Englewood publications, London, 2006 and history. On thePrentice-Hall destruction 3 Kantianism University Giorgio Ibid. in the inc., 1969,Agamben, p. at 48. of experience , Verso second decade of XX Century, publications, 2006 attending the London, lectures of 1
philosophers as Hermann 2 3 Giorgio Agamben, Infancy Giorgio Agamben, Ibid. Cohen which is the of 4 2 Georg Simmel, op.author cit., p. 51-52. and history. On the destruction Giorgio Agamben, Infancy Kant's Theorie der Erfahrung of experience , Verso and history. On the destruction 3 Giorgio Agamben, Ibid. [publications, Kant's Theory of Experience ] of experienceLondon, , Verso 2006 (1885). publications, London, 2006 4 Georg Simmel, op. cit., p. 51-52. 5 Benjamin has been particularly influenced by Neo4 Georg Simmel, op. cit., p. 51-52. 3 Kantianism at University Agamben, Ibid. in the 6 Giorgio Walter Benjamin, 3 second decade of XXExperience Century, Giorgio Agamben, 5 Benjamin has beenIbid. and poverty in Selected attending the lectures of particularly influenced by NeoWritings: Volume 2, part philosophers as Hermann2, 19315 Kantianism atHarvard University in the 1934 , Boston, Benjamin has 4 Cohen which isbeen the author of Georg Simmel, op. cit., p.732. 51-52. second decade of XX Century, University Press, 2005, p. particularly influenced by NeoKant's Theorie der 4 Georg Simmel, op.Erfahrung cit., attending the of p.in51-52. atlectures University the [Kantianism Kant's Theory of Experience ] philosophers second decadeasofHermann XX Century, (1885). Cohen which is the author attending the lectures of of 5 Benjamin has been Kant's Theorie Erfahrung 7 philosophers asder Hermann Walter Benjamin, op. cit., p. 5 particularly influenced by NeoBenjamin has been [Cohen Kant's Theory Experience which isof the author of] 733. Kantianism at University the (1885). Theorie particularly influenced byinNeoKant's der Erfahrung 6 Walter Benjamin, Experience second decade of XX Century, Kantianism at University in [Kant's Theory of Experiencethe ] and poverty Selected attending theinlectures of second of XX Century, (1885). decade Writings: Volume 2, part 2, 1931philosophers as Hermann attending the lectures of 8 Walter Benjamin, op. cit., p. 1934 , Boston, Harvard 6 Cohen is the author of philosophers as Hermann Walterwhich Benjamin, Experience 735. University Press, 2005, p. 732. Kant's Theorie der Erfahrung Cohen which the author of and poverty inisSelected [Kant's Kant's Theory of Experience ] 6 Walter Theorie der2,Erfahrung Writings: Volume part 2, 1931Benjamin, Experience [(1885). Kant's Theory of Experience ] 1934 Boston,in Harvard and ,poverty Selected (1885). University Press, 2005, p. 2, 732. Writings: Volume 2, Infancy part 19319 7 Giorgio Agamben, Walter Benjamin, op. cit., p. 1934, Boston, Harvard and 733. history. On the destruction University Press, 2005, p. 732. 6 ofWalter experience , London, Verso Benjamin, Experience 6 pubblications, (Infanzia 7 Walter and poverty in 2006 Selected Experience Benjamin, op. cit., p. e storia. Distruzione Writings: Volume 2, part 2, 1931and poverty in Selected 733. 8 Walter Benjamin, op. cit., p. 1934 , Boston, Harvard dell’esperienza e origine della Writings: Volume 2,op. part 2, p. 19317 Walter Benjamin, cit., 735. , Boston, University Press, 2005, p.1979). 732. storia Milano, 1934 Harvard 733. , Einaudi, University Press, 2005, p. 732. 8 Walter Benjamin, op. cit., p. 735. 9 Giorgio Agamben, Infancy 7 8 Walter Walter Benjamin, Benjamin, op. op. cit., cit., p. p. 7 733. and history. On the op. destruction Walter Benjamin, cit., p. 735. of 733.experience, London, Verso 9 pubblications, 2006 (Infancy Infanzia e Giorgio Agamben,
storia. Distruzione and history. On the destruction 8 Walter Benjamin, op. cit., p. 9 dell’esperienza e origine della Giorgio Agamben, Infancy of experience , London, Verso 8 Walter Benjamin, op. cit., p. 735. storia , Einaudi, Milano, 1979). e pubblications, (Infanzia and history. On2006 the destruction 735. storia. Distruzione of experience , London, Verso dell’esperienza2006 e origine dellae pubblications, (Infanzia storia , Distruzione Einaudi, Milano, 1979). storia. 9 Giorgio Agamben, Infancy dell’esperienza origine della 9 and history. Onethe destruction Giorgio Agamben, Infancy storia , Einaudi, Milano,Verso 1979). of experience , London, and history. On the destruction
pubblications, 2006 (Infanzia of experience, London, Verso e storia. Distruzione pubblications, 2006 (Infanzia e dell’esperienza e origine della storia. Distruzione storia, Einaudi, eMilano, dell’esperienza origine1979). della storia, Einaudi, Milano, 1979). Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. 13. 10
11
Giorgio Agamben, ibid.
does not mean that the objects are not perceived, as is the case with the half-wit, but rather that the meaning and differing values of things, and thereby the things themselves, are experienced as insubstantial.4 Cities are the genuine locale for this attitude where the objective spirit takes over the subjective spirit and all things lie on the same level in an evenly flat and grey zone. Nevertheless, the metropolis Simmel describes can still grant a form of individuality and personal freedom. It will be seen how any positive acceptation in describing these societal dynamics will steadily disappear over the century. In 1933 Walter Benjamin, following in the footsteps of Neo-Kantianism, writes his second essay about experience.5 The title is Experience and poverty. Benjamin introduces the text explaining what experience is through a parable: he narrates the fable of the old man on his death-bed who hints to his children at a buried treasure in the vineyard. The children dig for days without finding any treasure, but in the autumn, the vineyard beats fruits as no other: they understand that their father left them a piece of experience. Nevertheless, Benjamin states that this transmission of experience from generation to generation is no longer possible. What the author argues in the essay is that modern human, after the tremendous event of the First World War, became poor in communicable experience. Communicable experience means collective narrations, thus cultural wealth: what has been lost is not just experience on the personal level, but human experience in general. The shock led people to a “new kind of barbarism”, which is a world with no past, whose sole possibility is a new beginning.6 In fact, the architect Adolf Loos, as artist Paul Klee, “rejects the traditional, solemn, noble, image of man”, they rather change reality instead of describing it.7 Benjamin explains how the poverty of experience (and human culture) ends to give birth to the new architecture of Bauhaus and of Paul Scheerbart, which is considered inhuman, because made of glass and steel. These materials, in fact, do not allow to leave traces and to have any connection with past; it “follows from the foregoing”. Glass architecture has no aura and devours both “culture and people”, until turning man ignorant and inexperienced, wallowing in its poverty. We have become impoverished. We have given up one portion of the human heritage after another, and have often left it at the pawnbroker’s for a hundredth of true value, in exchange for the small change of “the contemporary”. 8 Forty-five years later, Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben writes the essay Infancy and history, whose subtitle is Essay on the destruction of experience, which seems to me an extraordinary synthesis between the two previous dissertations. 9 The text begins straight to the point, with a concise statement: The question of experience can be approached nowadays only with an acknowledgment that it is no longer accessible to us. 10 Concerning the topic, the author looks back to Walter Benjamin’s study which has been formerly examined, but immediately highlights a difference from the time the German philosopher used to write: 68
Benjamin had accurately diagnosed this ”poverty of experience” of the modern age; he located its origins in the catastrophe of the First World War […] Today, however, we know that the destruction of experience no longer necessitates a catastrophe. 11 The reason for this distinction is clarified by the author through a testament from everyday life: he describes the ordinary day of the contemporary human as uninterrupted rush, looking over the hundred news on the newspaper, driving stuck in a traffic jam, queuing up at supermarkets and business counters, working and finally making his way home wearied by a jumble of events. Modern man’s average day contains nothing that can still be translated into experience. 12 This also raises an interesting reflection on the etymology of the word “experience”, which come from Latin ex-, “out of”, and peritus, “experienced”, “tested”. However, the Latin word peritus, comes from the Greek root *per-, which involves the term πέρας (peras) [limit, boundary].13 Therefore, we can link the root of the word with the modern theory, stating that to actually experience something we have to limit the data we are dealing with in order to be able to select a certain information. In order to make a decision, a cut is needed: decision, from latin verb ceduo [to cut off, to trim]. The decision, the selection is indispensable to allow knowledge and experience, or in general involvement. Agamben also evokes Benjamin’s opinion on the technological stunning, in a paragraph that, written in 1978, is still incredibly present and that concerns the topic of this thesis: the link of experience with space and architecture. Standing face to face with one of the great wonders of the world (let us say the patio de los leones in the Alhambra), the overwhelming majority of people have no wish to experience it, preferring instead that the camera should. 14 What made me interested in the theories on experience of Benjamin and Agamben is a particular way of linking them, which is made by an Italian professor of philosophy of ideas, borrowing words from a brilliant narration of Nobel Prize laureate Josè Saramago. The professor is called Andrea Tagliapietra and the narration I am referring to is Blindness, written in 1995. During Renato Rizzi’s workshop at University IUAV of Venice, in July 2015, architecture and philosophy have been brought together to establish a theoretical ground for the project and philosopher Andrea Tagliapietra uses an analogy to explain the two different theories on experience: on one hand, Benjamin’s argument about the impossibility of experience is compared to the common blindness, where the subject is only able to see complete darkness.15 A black blindness which represents the total loss of visual perception. On the other hand, Agamben’s theory, which enriches Simmel’s words at the beginning of the XX Century, evokes the apocalyptic white blindness that affects society in Saramago’s masterpiece. The impossibility to see due to an excess of light as the impossibility to make experience due to an overflow of events and data.16
69
Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. 13. 10
11
Giorgio Agamben, ibid.
Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. 13. Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. 13. 14. 10 10 12
11
Giorgio Agamben, ibid.
Giorgio Agamben, ibid.], the ἄπειρον [apeiron opposite, is the term of ancient Greek philosophy which 12 Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. represent the “unlimited”, 14. 12 “infinite” “indefinite”. Giorgioor Agamben, op. cit., p. 14. 10 Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. 13. 13 ἄπειρον [apeiron], the 14 Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. opposite, is the term of ancient 13 15. ἄπειρον [apeiron], the Greek philosophy which opposite, is the term of ancient represent the “unlimited”, 11 Giorgio Agamben, Greek philosophyibid. which “infinite” or “indefinite”. represent the “unlimited”, 15 “infinite” or “indefinite”. Josè Saramago, Blindness, Washington, Harvest Book, 12 Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. 1999. 14 14.Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. 15.Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. 10 14 Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. 13. 15. 16 Paul Virilio, The Overexposed 13 ἄπειρον the City (2002). See[apeiron page 24],of this 15 Josè Saramago, Blindness, opposite, is the term of ancient essay. Washington, Harvest Book, 11 15 Giorgio Agamben, ibid. which Greek philosophy Josè Saramago, Blindness , 1999. represent “unlimited”, Washington, the Harvest Book, “infinite” or “indefinite”. 1999. 11 13
Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. 14.Paul Virilio, The Overexposed City (2002). See page 24 of this 14 16 Paul Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. Virilio, The Overexposed essay. 15. (2002). See page 24 of this City essay. 13 ἄπειρον [apeiron], the opposite, is the term of ancient 15 Greek philosophy which Josè Saramago, Blindness , represent “unlimited”, Washington, the Harvest Book, “infinite” or “indefinite”. 1999. 12 16
Paul Virilio, The Overexposed Giorgio Agamben, op. cit., p. City 15. (2002). See page 24 of this essay. 16 14
15 Josè Saramago, Blindness, Washington, Harvest Book, 1999.
Paul Virilio, The Overexposed City (2002). See page 24 of this
16
essay.
V. Essays
Manifesto For a cross-disciplinary, open and collective study of the territory
/ List of phases
Architecture from contamination Architecture through observation Architecture as narration
/ List of assertations
Architecture from contamination 1.1 The territory is made by different geographies 1.2 The study of the territory reaches its highest point when contaminated with other disciplines 1.3 Connecting disciplines is the main capability of the architect as intellectual 1.4 The power of architecture from contamination and mediation Architecture through observation 2.1 Each research starts trough observation 2.2 The architectural project demands contextuality 2.3 Architectural design as a collective project 2.4 The fallacy of over-specialization Architecture as narration 3.1 The need for narration 3.2 The project as a form of narration 3.3 The refuse of strict planning for the contemporary project 3.4 The flexibility of narration leaves space for appropriation
The structure of the following narration is inspired by Bergson’s “Matière et mémoire” and reflects my fascination of mixing literary narration and concise scientific assertations. It has been written as a prolegomenon of my master thesis The Suburban Commons to define my position as architect and the method. 70
Manifesto
Architecture as narration 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4
The need for narration The project as a form of narration The refuse of strict planning for the contemporary project The flexibility of narration leaves space for appropriation
“Less and less frequently do we encounter people with the ability to tell a tale properly. More and more often there is embarrassment all around when the wish to hear a story is expressed. It is as if something that seemed inalienable to us, the securest among our possessions, were taken from us: the ability to exchange experiences” (Benjamin, 1933). In the first half of 1930s, Walter Benjamin focuses on the theme of experience and the connection between experience and narration. According to him the collective trauma of the First World War led to the impossibility to make experience. Consequently, the crisis of experience causes and involves the crisis of narrating. Decades after, Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben resumes Benjamin’s theory on the experience and links it to the end of the Twentieth Century. He states that contemporary human is incapable to make experience, not anymore because of a collective void as the First World War for Benjamin, but due to the modern overexposure of information that we are witnessing today. “Standing face to face with one of the great wonders of the world (let us say the patio de los leones in the Alhambra), the overwhelming majority of people have no wish to experience it, preferring instead that the camera should” (Agamben, 1978). The overexposure of stimuli Agamben writes about is even more actual today and it deeply affects the way people experience space in their everyday life. If Benjamin already said that “architecture has always represented the prototype of a work of art the reception of which is consummated by the collectivity in a state of distraction”, today this distraction is amplified by the overwhelmed amount of inputs we receive from the world. Consequently to the incapability of making experience reaches its peak the lack of narration. The need for narration. I would speculate that this lack of narration affects the architectural field in the way the project is thought. The necessity and the rapidity to give a quick spatial answer that focuses on the aesthetic paradigm rather that the analysis of the territory is to me one of the main issues today in architecture. This problem comes along with the impossibility of the architect and urbanist to imagine and narrate future scenarios. The quote from Benjamin’s “Storyteller” in the previous paragraph can be easily applied to architectural design today. I reckon that our generation largely lacks the capability to imagine the evolution of everyday life in 10, 20, 50 years and are satisfied by rendering a new building into the present
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V. Essays
way of living. On the contrary, I believe that the aim of the architectural project is to shape the change of how the city and the territory will be lived and the imaginative power of the architect is the main tool for this. In my project, the main output of the research phase has been imagining how future life will shape the territory and, at the same time, how an architectural intervention can play a role in the transformation of everyday life. A series of microstories has been imagined to envision the change of space and society. The first part of the project itself lies in the capability to narrate the future. The project as a form of narration. Envisioning the project through microstories forces the architect to reach a great level of detail to reflect on everyday elements of the future way of living without the necessity of forcing the strictness of planning. It allows to understand which are the critical points and the improvement to be made that will influence the transition between present and future, but it leaves rooms to the uncertainty of reality and freedom of users. A traditional, comprehensive urban masterplan as it was done until a decade ago would result completely anachronistic today. This is why it is necessary to read, to study and to translate the territory in a much deeper way to find out the crucial points to intervene on wisely. First of all, because the public economic resources are not enough anymore for great interventions and architectural intervention are now often related to the metaphor of acupuncture. Secondly, because the world is changing so fast (politically, culturally and economically) since the great development of telecommunications on that a large, “definitive� intervention may risk to result obsolete within the time it is finished. Lastly, because contemporary architecture learned from modernism and post-modernism that a top-down approach only isolates our discipline away from its users and that a project is successful not only according to its mere aesthetics, but also to its capability to be appropriated and used by people.
The refuse of strict planning for the contemporary project.
The narration as a tool to design and to envision future scenarios is connected with the need for the architect to observe and be on the field. The idea of the architectural project as a collective project does not only apply to the observation phase of the design, but also to while envisioning future scenarios and formulating the project itself. This takes place when the architect does not dictate how to live and how to act to the future users of the project but leaves room for the unpredictability of the appropriation. Nevertheless, it is important to underline that the act of leaving space for appropriation does not mean giving away a part of your responsibility as an architect, but accepting the contingency of real world. Microstories always carry an element of exemplification of the uncertain that remains flexible, differently from a masterplan. The flex-
ibility of narration leaves space for appropriation.
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Manifesto
virginia santilli
virginiasantilli5@gmail.com virginiasantilli.eu